News Just Now:NFL announces 2024 season schedule

The full schedule of fixtures has been announced for the 2024 NFL season, with the Kansas City Chiefs looking to create history.

In February the Chiefs won their third Super Bowl in five years and their second straight NFL title.

They became the first team to achieve that feat since the New England Patriots in 2004 and 2005, but no team has won three Super Bowls in a row.

The NFL teased the 2024 schedule by revealing some fixtures before Wednesday’s full rollout.

Now quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his Chiefs team-mates know exactly who and when they will play as they aim to reach Super Bowl 59.

The season will begin on the first full weekend of September and, as is tradition, the Super Bowl champions open the new season that Thursday.

That means the Chiefs will host the Baltimore Ravens on 5 September in a repeat of last year’s AFC Championship game – effectively one of the Super Bowl semi-finals.

The NFL will play its first game in Brazil on 6 September before a full programme on 8 September.

The regular season lasts 18 weeks, with each team playing 17 games, and ends on 5 January 2025.

The Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, who contested last season’s Super Bowl, will meet on 20 October.

What are the other big games of the NFL season?
Veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered a season-ending injury only four plays into his New York Jets debut on the first Monday of last season.

The four-time MVP is set to kick-start his Jets career on the first Monday of the new season with a return to his native California to face the 49ers, the team he supported as a boy and who overlooked him when they had the first pick in the 2005 draft.

Rodgers’ move from the NFL’s smallest media market (Green Bay) to the largest (New York) meant the Jets earned five games on primetime TV slots last season.

This year they have six, the joint highest with the Dallas Cowboys – known as America’s Team – and the 49ers.

Brothers John and Jim Harbaugh will meet as opposing coaches for the third time on 25 November, three days before Thanksgiving.

John remains in charge of the Ravens, while Jim has been appointed Los Angeles Chargers coach.

They contested the 2013 Super Bowl, with John’s Ravens beating Jim’s 49ers.